The United States recognized PMC “Wagner” as a “transnational criminal organization”

The United States has imposed new sanctions against Russian individuals and entities should from the US Treasury Department.

PMC “Wagner” is recognized as a “transnational criminal organization,” the country’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement. Companies associated with Wagner also fell under the sanctions. We are talking about the technology company Terra-Tech, Sewa Security Services from the Central African Republic, which, according to the US Department of the Treasury, is controlled by PMCs, and the UAE aviation company Kratol Aviation. The restrictions also affected a number of individuals who, according to the US agency, are associated with PMC Wagner.

The sanctions included Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov, head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and his wife Gulsina Minnikhanova. Also in the “black list” included a member of the board of directors of the company “nornickel» Sergey Batekhin, General Director of the Almaz-Antey Aerospace Defense Concern Yan Novikov, owner of a controlling stake in the Kalashnikov Concern, ex-Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Alan Lushnikov and others.

Among the sanctioned companies are the Almaz-Antey VKO concern, the Gamma and Prima research and production enterprises, the Ural Civil Aviation Plant (UZGA) and the cargo charter airline Aviacon Zitotrans.

Also, restrictions were imposed against JSC National Aviation Service Company serving Russian aviation and LLC TKH-Invest, through which Lushnikov owns shares of Kalashnikov. In addition, sanctions touched four more structures associated with Vladimir Potanin’s Interros holding.

Such changes in the sanctions lists indicate that the American leadership is continuing the line of expanding anti-Russian restrictions, said Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Russian International Affairs Council. Washington includes high-ranking officials and civil servants in the lists, imposes restrictions on Russian high-tech industries. At the same time, the expert adds, we are talking about a quantitative rather than a qualitative tightening of sanctions – nothing fundamentally new can be traced in the actions of the United States. As for the recognition of Wagner PMC as a “transnational criminal organization”, it is unlikely that it will greatly affect the state of affairs. Timofeev recalls that earlier PMC Wagner was already under US blocking sanctions, so the situation as a whole will not change.

The status of an “international criminal organization” assigned by the US Department of the Treasury puts the Wagner PMC on the same list as the Italian Camorra, the Japanese Yakuza, the Salvadoran MS-13 and other criminal groups that are already there, included in the SDN-list according to Decree No. 13581 of 2011 by US President Barack Obama on “sanctions against international crime syndicates,” says Sergey Glandin, partner at NSP law firm and international law expert.

But in general, this title does not change anything for the functioning of the organization – PMC Wagner has already been under US blocking sanctions since 2017 on the basis of presidential decree No. Joe Biden #14024 of 2021) grounds make it even more unlikely that blocking sanctions will be lifted in the future, the lawyer said.

The United States imposed sanctions against PMC Wagner back in 2017. In 2016, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was also subject to restrictions. At the end of December 2022, the United States tightened sanctions against the organization in connection with its participation in hostilities in Ukraine. The country’s Commerce Department imposed export restrictions to prevent the organization from accessing a number of military goods.

January 20 John Kirby, Strategic Communications Coordinator at the US National Security Council informedthat Washington recognizes the Wagner PMC as an “international criminal organization”, after which the country’s Ministry of Finance will impose additional sanctions against it. In response, Prigozhin said that now Wagner and the Americans would become colleagues.